319.
(282) For the general view of noxious gases as imps of Satan, see Hoefer, Histoire de la Chimie, vol.i, p.

350; vol.ii, p.48.For the work of Black, Priestley, Bergmann, and others, see main authorities already cited, and especially the admirable paper of Dr.R.G.Eccles on The Evolution of Chemistry, New York, D.Appleton & Co., 1891.

For the treatment of Priesley, see Spence's Essays, London, 1892; also Rutt, Life and Correspondence of Priestley, vol.ii, pp.

115 et seq.
II.
Just at the middle of the seventeenth century, and at the very centre of opposition to physical science, Robert Boyle began the new epoch in chemistry.

Strongly influenced by the writings of Bacon and the discoveries of Galileo, he devoted himself to scientific research, establishing at Oxford a laboratory and putting into it a chemist from Strasburg.